7D Mark II

The 7D Mark II is Canon’s ultimate sports and wildlife camera, and for many, it’s the greatest action camera in the world. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4RDZ66FpMo Standing at the top of Canon’s APS-C/EF-S lineup, the 7D Mark II has a remarkable autofocus system matched only by the $6,800 1DX. The autofocus points almost fill the entire frame, and each point is an extremely capable cross-type sensor. In short, the 7D Mark II is better than almost any camera at tracking moving subjects. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTuBr0W0Zhw For most sports and wildlife photographers, the 7D Mark II is a better choice than the higher-end 5D Mark III, primarily because of the smaller sensor. In situations where you can’t get close enough to your subject and you have to crop by 1.6X anyway, the 5D Mark III would be reduced to only 14 megapixels, while the 7D Mark II still has the full 20 megapixels. Of course, if you can get close enough to fill the frame on your lens with a 5D Mark III, the image quality will certainly be better. However, with wildlife, animals rarely get close enough to allow you to fill the frame, even with massive telephoto lenses, so the extra pixel density does result in sharper pictures. If you plan to shoot sports and wildlife but the 7D Mark II is out of your price range, the original 7D is still an excellent alternative. It doesn’t take pictures quite as fast, the buffer is smaller, and the autofocus system is inferior, but a used 7D costs about 1/3 the price of a new 7D Mark II, and they take similar images. The following figures compare the autofocus points of the original 7D to the new 7D Mark II. As you can see, the 7D Mark II spreads the autofocus points further around the frame. For action where you don’t have the opportunity to use the focus-recompose technique, this provides for more flexible compositions.   For video, the 70D is a better choice, because the 70D has an articulating touchscreen. This allows you to see live view easier from different angles. You can also take advantage of the video autofocus capabilities better by simply touching the screen on the 70D. With the 7D, you need to use the joystick to select an autofocus point in order to refocus, and this is going to shake the camera unacceptably during video. If video is your primary purpose, you might also consider the Panasonic GH4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9tRpvCUKHA The articulating touch screen and lower price also make the 70D a better choice for general photography, other than sports and wildlife. For landscape and portrait photography, I recommend one of the Canon full-frame cameras, such as the Canon 6D, which is about the same price as the 7D Mark II. For landscapes, you might also look into the Nikon DSLR lineup, because their sensors create sharper images with less noise and greater dynamic range. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSJ4mrTzDTg